The Christmas Tree
by AmberJeanie
Summary: Hermione insists on baking and icing the cake for the Christmas party and Draco can’t figure out why.


Disclaimer: I own none of the recognizable characters they belong to J.K. Rowling. Cherry and Zoe are the only characters of my own mind. (Unless you count the caterers because they're mine too.) The only thing this has in common with the books are the characters names.

* * *

"We've been married how many years and I still don't understand you?" Draco asked as his wife retrieved ingredients from the delivery owl. "I can get you any cake you want from any baker magical or muggle and you still insist on making and icing one yourself." He said wrapping his arms around her waist as she started to mix the ingredients for the chocolate cake.

"Draco not now I need to start on this cake I only have six hours to make it." Hermione answered him.

"Love, maybe you should take a rest the party isn't until six and it's only nine."

"Well I need extra time just in case and I have to make myself look pretty." She grinned up at him.

"You never look pretty." He answered making her grin disappear. "You always look beautiful." She smiled again and turned around to kiss him.

"Thank you, now go to work I have a lot to do." She turned back to the bowl.

"Well I feel wanted." Draco pouted feigning sadness.

"You can feel wanted tonight; right now I need to work."

"Tonight?" He grinned.

"At the party." Hermione specified. "Now, for Merlin's sake go!" She said pushing him out of the kitchen. Hearing the loud crack that told her he had left for work, she went back to her cake. While the Christmas tree cake was baking, she made the icing and then started hanging decorations with magic. She was not always primitive, as her husband had once called her because of her muggle habits. When the cake was done, she took it out to cool while she continued to decorate. Once it was ready, she started icing. Green went on first, then some gold, then silver, red, blue, purple, pink, orange, white, and black. Four icing ornaments decorated the tree, one was a red and gold lion, and another was a silver and green serpent. The last two were a bronze and blue eagle and a yellow and black badger. Each of the ornaments represented one of the four houses in Hogwarts. The tree was for the biannual Christmas party Hermione hosted for their class. As she was putting the finishing touches on the cake there was one spot that the icing would not stick to. Hermione furrowed her eyebrows trying to cover up the bare cake. She growled at it. After playing with it for ten minutes, she brought out her wand to try to cover it up.

"I thought you weren't going to use magic?" A voice asked from the door. Hermione jumped dropping her wand.

"Draco! You scared me." She said picking up her wand. "And I wasn't going to use magic I was going to use my wand to beat the icing onto this stupid spot." She frowned crossing her arms. Draco just laughed at her.

"Whatever it's your cake." He shrugged.

"Wait, what are you doing home?" She asked silently charming icing onto the bald spot.

"I got done early and decided to come home and help you set up." He walked over to her and planted a kiss on her forehead.

"Thank you I could use a little help with the sitting room." The two walked into the other room and finished putting up decorations. When they were done, Hermione commented that they had two hours until the caterers go there so they should go get dressed. After an hour in the bathroom and countless whines from Draco complaining that she took way too long, Hermione stepped out and Draco immediately silenced. His wife stood in front of him in a red knee length cocktail dress. Her curls were piled on her head.

"I was right you are always beautiful." Draco smiled and Hermione blushed.

"Why aren't you changed?" She asked examining him.

"I'll put it on later. I only need five minutes to get the thing on." Hermione frowned but didn't argue. Over the next half hour, Hermione ran around the house fixing all of the decorations that Draco put up. This meant moving them one way and then putting them back and saying it then looked perfect.

"Why did you want me to help with the decorations if you were just going to say they weren't right?" Draco asked as he watched the spectacle from the door.

"Because I thought you would be able to do it right." She said stepping back to survey her handiwork. Draco decided it would be better if he didn't point out the fact that she was looking over his shoulder the entire time and correcting him when he put things in the wrong place or arranged them off center or in the wrong order. The half hour before the caterers were supposed to be there Hermione paced in the foyer complaining that she should have gotten a different company because this one had a tendency to be late. To Draco relief the caterers arrived ten minutes before five and tried to apologize if it was inconvenient for them to be there early but they were a few hands short. They had all of the food unpacked in thirty minutes then started setting up. Before they were finished, Hermione ordered Draco to go change.

"How much food did you order?" Draco asked as he walked into the room dressed in black pants and a red silk shirt. "I would almost think you invited the entire school from every year we were there." He paused when she didn't answer. "You didn't invite the entire school did you?" He and Hermione watched the men and women set the food up in intricate designs.

"No, only our class. However, that includes twenty guys. I would rather have extra than not enough." They moved out of the way of a caterer carrying a huge tray of food. "Besides I have boxes so if anyone wants the extras they can take it home."

"You think of everything don't you?" He put his arms around her waist and kissed her.

"Oh! I forgot the cake. Excuse me! Can you leave this space open?" She asked the caterers. The people around her nodded and she ran up to the office. She came back down with red tape. "Draco, come help me." She commanded. Draco wandered over and Hermione slapped the end of the tape on his hand.

"What am I supposed to do with this?" He asked.

"Just stay there for a sec." She answered pulling the tape. When it got to the length she wanted, she cut it off and secured it to the floor. She walked over the tape to stick it to the floor. When she got to Draco, he put his end on the floor and then she put the new end on his hand. They did this three more times to make a box about four feet by four feet. By the time she was finished the caterers had finished and left.

"You think that little cake needs that much space?" He asked.

"You'll see." She answered with a smile going into the kitchen to retrieve the cake. She put the cake in the center of the square of tape. Just then, the doorbell rang. "Could you get that honey?" Draco sighed and left the room.

"Draco!" Blaise Zabini called out clearly drunk as he shook Draco's hand. Hermione came into the foyer to see who it was and immediately regretted it. "Hermione! I haven't seen you in two years." He almost fell on her as he hugged her. "This is my friend Cherry." He pointed to the woman he brought. She giggled.

"Nice to meet you." Hermione held out her hand. The girl giggled as she shook Hermione's hand. "Draco, why don't you show Blaise and um, Cherry to the sitting room?" Draco nodded and motioned for the two to follow him. Hermione went into the kitchen again out of nervous habit and the fact she didn't want to spend too much time around Blaise. Every time they saw him, he had a new girlfriend just as giggly as the last. The doorbell rang again and Hermione ran to answer it.

"Hermione!" Her two best friends exclaimed as they enveloped her in a giant hug.

"Harry, Ron. I'm so glad you could come." She grinned. "Ginny, Zoe. How are you?" She asked the spouses of her friends as she embraced them.

"Hi Hermione. Guess what!" Zoe, Ron's American girlfriend said grinning.

"What?" Hermione smiled.

"We're engaged!" She held her hand up to show the gigantic ring on it. She and Ron were doing very well now with Ron being the owner of a branch of Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes and Zoe being an accomplished artist. Hermione squealed and hugged the girl.

"That's so exciting!" She said hugging Ron as well.

"What's all the squealing about?" Draco asked coming into the foyer.

"Ron and Zoe are engaged." Hermione said.

"Well congrats." He shook Ron's hand then Harry's to say hello. He gave each of the girls a kiss on the cheek.

"Come on you have to see the cake I made!" Hermione said leading Ginny and Zoe into the other room. Over the next hour more and more people arrived. Hermione and Draco were separated for a good part of the party entertaining their friends. When they finally caught up with each other, they savored the moment looking at the semi-eaten tree cake.

"Now I really don't understand why you had to make the cake yourself if you were just going to use magic to make it into a six foot display." He said watching a couple try to take a piece off without making it fall over.

"Personal satisfaction among other things." Hermione answered.

"What other things?" Draco asked.

"Hermione, did you really ice that whole thing?" Lavender Brown asked pulling Hermione away.

"Mm Hm." Hermione answered. "And it only took two hours."

"Are you sure you didn't use magic?" Their voices faded into the crowd and Draco grinned at his wife's half-truth.

* * *

No random flames please because I will completely ignore them. If you have a comment on my story other than 'it sucks' (or any variation of that) tell me, if not save yourself the time and don't send it. Constructive criticism is welcomed just please don't be mean about it. 


End file.
